The VIPER infrared muzzle flash detection system was deployed from a helicopter and an airship in response to the Washington, DC area sniper attacks in October 2002. The system consisted of a midwave IR camera, which was used to detect muzzle flash and cue a visible light camera on a gimbal to the detected event. The helicopter installation was done to prove that a manned airborne installation of the VIPER detection system would work. Within 36 hours of the request to deploy the system, it had been modified, approved by the FAA inspector and flown. Testing at the Ft. Meade rifle range showed that in the helicopter installation the system worked at least as well as the ground based system. Because of the limited endurance that a helicopter allows, the system was then installed aboard a Navy leased airship. It was flown at Elizabeth City, NC and was tested against live fire. In response to the Washington, DC sniper shootings, the OSD had tasked a parallel effort to deploy a 20" WesCam gyro stabilized gimbal on the same airship. Software was developed in the field to interface the WesCam gimbal to the VIPER system so that it could automatically slew over to a detection event. The airship installation also added GPS based moving map display capability. That was completed within four days of the first request to deploy. The next four days were spent coordinating a concept of operations for working with law enforcement agencies and getting flight clearances to bring the airship into the DC-Richmond corridor. After the sniper suspects were caught, the airship was taken to Patuxent River Naval Air Station and the muzzle flash detection system was tested there against live rifle fire. These were the first flights of the airborne VIPER payload. It has since been flown numerous times on helicopters and tested against various guns, mortars, and artillery. The Naval Research Laboratory has demonstrated multiple payloads, each of which flew in manned helicopters and all controlled from a single ground station.